Thursday, March 26, 2009

Measuring Wine Acidity Using a pH Meter

This is the fourth (in a series of 5) blog articles relating to wine acidity issues when making wine. After our next home wine making article on wine acidity we will turn our focus onto an issue of interest to our home brewing clientele.

If you have access to a pH meter you can use this device to measure wine acidity in a method very similar to that accomplished using the acid testing kit described in our just previous blog article. Accuracy of your results would be the reason for purchasing a pH meter versus the testing kit. One of the problems with the test kit is that darker colored wines are very difficult to see at what point the color change occurs. This problem is eliminated with the pH meter.

What you do is start off the same way described in my previous post (add the color indicator to your wine sample). Start adding the reagent (the sodium hydroxide) to the wine/indicator solution a drop at a time. Swirl the mixture thoroughly after adding each droplet and take a reading with the pH meter. When the pH meter reads 8.2 (this would correspond to the timing with the acid test kit when the color indicator changes color). The number of droplets added will again indicate your acidity level.

Be careful with your pH meter! Be sure and clean the device thoroughly after each use, protect the probe from damage from mishandling and be sure and calibrate the pH meter each time you use it using fresh buffering solution.

BlueStem Winery is not only a licensed winery but also has a fully stocked store and warehouse of beer brewing supplies, winemaking ingredients and a large inventory of both Cellar Craft and WinExpert wine making kits. Although our name indicates that we are heavily into winemaking we do carry a significant amount of beer making supplies and have our own line of beer brewing kits known as BlueStems Best. We are a full service brewing supply store and welcome your visit (either in person or on-line) the next time you need brewing supplies or wine making supplies.


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